


stars in his eyes

by maddycakepaddycake



Series: jasits side stories [1]
Category: Just Another Star In the Sky - Original Work
Genre: Childhood Friends, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Slash, Sventi just wants him to stop beating himself up, Talik's got some bad habits, both of them are very gay but only Talik has realized it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 13:42:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11533428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maddycakepaddycake/pseuds/maddycakepaddycake
Summary: Sventi had always wanted to fly.orThe gay backstory before the gay backstory.





	stars in his eyes

**Author's Note:**

> another sventali side story i wrote for my friend's book  
> NONE OF THE CHARACTERS BELONG TO ME  
> go read it here:  
> https://www.wattpad.com/story/88550282-just-another-star-in-the-sky  
> once again, the setting and some of the references are earth-esque, i'm not creative enough to create a whole other planet and society

Sventi had always wanted to fly.

 

He loves running, feeling the burn in his legs and lungs. A typical interest for an actuliv. But ever since he was a kid, Sventi wanted to fly.

 

So he stared at the sky, and dreamt of flying.

 

And then he met Talik, the boy with eyes like the heavens.

 

Talik was, and still is, his best friend. They spent their entire childhoods together. Sventi can barely remember a time before Talik was in his life.

 

But he remembers looking into Talik’s eyes, mapping the constellations in them. Looking at the stars and thinking _that’s what I want_.

 

And so his love for flying evolves into a fascination for the cosmos, a want to soar above the world and reach for them.

 

Much to his delight, Talik grows to share his love for space and stars, so they go to the same pre-academy and learn as much as they can possibly fit into their minds. They grow like weeds, Sventi managing to barely pass Talik in height by the end of their last year. They mature and change – their voices drop and they put on muscle from hours of sparring. While Sventi’s shoulders broaden, Talik’s lean figure grows tougher, his legs longer. Talik draws in on himself a bit, hesitating to voice every thought like he used to. He works hard, sometimes too hard Sventi watches his best friend, memorizing every facet of him, so he knows what he’s telling him even when he doesn’t say it out loud.

 

Then they go to academy training in the space exploration program. They train and practice and spar, and their flight instructor thinks they’d be excellent co-pilots. And Sventi’s dream changes again, this time to a vision of Talik and himself flying together, co-piloting a mission to some far-off planet and exploring the universe. And Talik looks at him with those cosmic eyes and they make a promise to reach the stars together.

 

So they work even harder. They take flight lessons, both individual and cooperative, and learn to pilot a space ship. Sventi’s flight simulation scores skyrocket, Talik’s a little below his. They’re not the top two pilots in their class, and the pilot above them is an incredible one, but that doesn’t matter to them. Because their co-op sim scores are _unbeatable_.

 

They’re perfectly in sync. Sventi loves it. He loves the rush of a perfectly-timed dive, watching the virtual landscape rush towards them and pulling out at exactly the same time. Even more so, he loves looking over at Talik afterward and seeing the breathless look of elation and wonder on his face, the expression mirrored on his own. They spend entire afternoons after class in the sims. They work hard, throwing everything they’ve got at every wall they face. They pour their hearts and souls out, and it pays off. Their scores climb higher. They’re known to the rest of the pilot pairs as the “miracle duo”, feared and admired in equal measures. But that doesn’t matter to them either, because they’re too caught up in their own universe to look back down.

 

They finish the minimum education requirements and look towards the stars. They’re officially made pilots and wait for their mission assignments with bated breath. They’ve applied as co-pilots, though they’re not guaranteed to be assigned together. But they’re not worried. Everyone expects the miracle duo to be sent off to space right away.

 

They’re buzzing with excitement when the assignments are posted. They race each other to the announcement board outside the flight department, eager to see what galaxy they’re going to.

 

And they freeze.

 

_Co-Piloting Division:_

_Carxithian Galaxy, Planet Ajicixiz: Bique, Sventi_

_Qint, Kovtuq_

 

Everyone is shocked. How could they not get assigned together? They’re two halves of the same whole, matching puzzle pieces. There must’ve been a mistake, a typo, there’s no way-

 

Talik looks disappointed, mixed with something like resignation. He smiles, but it’s fake, and suggests that they stay calm and go ask the professor.

 

They find out why through an overheard conversation between the professor’s assistants as they are about to knock on his classroom door.

 

_It was because the pink-haired one, Yeht, is a thesic. The board said that his individual scores weren’t high enough, and that he wouldn’t be able to handle the stress of a real mission._

 

_But Bique’s individual scores aren’t much higher than Yeht’s, are they?_

 

_No, but he’s an actuliv, and he’s got pretty good compatability ratings with Qint. Not as high as with Yeht, though, obviously. Those two are incredible. But Qint has the better individual score and he requested a co-pilot position, so they paired him with Bique. Dang, the prof was furious._

 

Sventi is angrier than he’s ever been in his life. He wants to scream and punch every one of those racist old geezers on the board because this is discriminatory and unfair.

 

Talik doesn’t get mad. His face falls, his breath hitches. Sventi is suddenly scared in a way he’s never been before. His best friend stumbles backwards, away from the open classroom door. He doesn’t seem to hear Sventi’s frantic calls as he turns on his heel and sprints away.

 

Sventi  runs after him, but he’s gone.

 

He doesn’t come back to their shared dorm that night.

 

The next morning before mission briefings, he shows up with a forced smile that looks more like a grimace to Sventi, dark circles under his eyes, and a huge stack of books. He was at the library last night, he says, and he accidentally fell asleep. He asks Sventi to go through with the Ajicixiz mission and when he comes back he’ll be good enough for them to be assigned on one together. The Ajicixiz mission is short, he says, so it won’t be that long, but Sventi isn’t having it.

 

When he goes to the briefing, he apologizes profusely but concisely to the mission leader and his supposed-to-be-co-pilot, saying he’s decided to decline this mission. They try to convince him that he’s wasting an excellent opportunity, but Sventi stubbornly ignores them. He doesn’t see Talik much in the next three days. He spends the majority of his time negotiating and apologizing and thanking his professor, but his declination is finally approved and he’s put on standby for the next round of mission assignments.

 

He finally leaves the campus as the sun is setting. He notices a light on in the flight simulation hangar, but thinks nothing of it. He returns to the dorm and finds it empty. There’s a note from Talik saying that he’s at the grocery store and he’ll be back soon. Sventi heats a quick dinner, too tired to wait for him to come back, flops on the couch and drifts off, thinking he’ll wake up when he does. He’s exhausted from arguing with people all day.

 

He wakes up around eleven, yawning. Talik still isn’t back. Worry shoots through him, and he jumps to his feet. He rushes to the door, nearly tripping over his friend’s still-packed book bag. Then he notices that his workout bag is gone. And remembers the light left on in the simulation hangar. Sventi groans, because of course he did. Talik has a bad habit of overworking himself, so of course he’d ask the professor for a key and permission to use the sims after hours. He grabs some leftovers and a cloud cake for Talik and walks back to the hangar. It’s empty, everyone else having gone home long before. Only one of the sim pods is moving, whirring spastically.

 

Sventi turns on the monitors the instructors use to monitor students in the pods. Talik is running an asteroid field simulation, sweat soaking through his black shirt and his pink hair plastered to his face. He looks exhausted and tense, the muscles of his dark skin straining as he struggles to move the controls despite the resistance the sim pod is throwing at him. He finishes the simulation and slams his head back against the chair, panting and wiping sweat off his face. Sventi turns on the intercom.

 

“I thought I’d find you here. I brought you food and a cloud cake, get out of there and come eat.”

 

Talik groans. He doesn’t even sound surprised. “Not now, Sventi, I have to run that one again. I had three collisions.” Sventi would normally tease him about his lack of reaction at his favorite food, but he’s kind of irritated and way too worried right now.

 

“No you don’t, you need to eat, it’s eleven and you’ve barely eaten.”

 

“How do you know?”

 

“Your book bag is still packed sitting by the door at the dorm and your workout bag was gone, which means you went back to get it right after classes ended. There’s a snack bar wrapper on the floor next to the pod, and you never eat those unless you’re starving but you can’t go get real food.”

 

Talik groans again. “Fine.” He shuts off the simulation and presses the button next to the door. It opens with a hiss. He steps down, grabbing his water bottle and his towel off the floor.

 

Sventi switches off the monitors and crosses his arms.

 

“…What?” Talik asks, taking a sip of his water. “You’re glaring at me.”

 

“I’ll wait until you eat,” he says, sitting on the floor and pushing the food towards Talik. He grudgingly sits and starts eating.

 

After he’s done, Sventi says, “Are you going to tell me why you’re here at eleven o’clock at night?”

 

Talik rolls his eyes. “I told you already, I have to be good enough by the time you get back.”

 

Sventi frowns. “Do you really think I’d leave with you still here?”

 

“Yes, of course. This is a great opportunity for you. And I’m proud that you made it. You’ll fly well with Qint.” Talik says, smiling a little too bitterly to be genuine. Sventi can tell he’s struggling to keep up his facade.

 

“Are you serious? Tali, I don’t _want_ to fly with him,” Sventi says incredulously, annoyed  that he would think otherwise.

 

“I know you don’t want to, Sventi, I’m not that stupid. But this is too good for you to pass up, you know it is,” Talik shoots back. “And I don’t want you to miss this because of me.”

 

“It’s not because of you, it’s because of me! I don’t want to fly without you!”

 

“Sventi, you need a co-pilot who is on the same level as you. You need another actuliv, or a seer, or something,” Talik says, that horrible, robotic smile still plastered on his face, his knuckles paling where he’s clenched his shaking hands into fists. As hard as Sventi knows he’s trying to stop it, his eyes are slowly filling with unshed tears. “I need to do this on my own. You don’t need me, I’m just a-“

 

“Don’t,” Sventi snarls suddenly. “Don’t say it. You are not _just_ anything. I don’t fly with _just_ anyone. I fly with you.” His eyes are stinging.

 

“You don’t get it,” Talik whispers, voice growing increasingly shaky. “I- I won’t- I can’t drag you down. I- I can’t let that happen. You always stop and wait for me, but I can’t let you do that this time. I can’t let you slow yourself down because I’m not good enough!”

 

“Why?” Sventi asks, trembling from frustration and pent-up worry at how Talik is treating himself. “Why don’t you get it? It’s not _I_ anything! It’s _us_! You aren’t alone! That’s the point of co-piloting, you idiot! There’s two pilots at the controls! You don’t get to make a decision for me that involves both of us!” A tear slips from the corner of his eye. He lifts a finger to catch it, surprised.

 

When he looks back up at Talik, he’s crying silently into his hands.

 

“Tali,” he whispers, his heart clenching. He hates watching him cry.

 

Without warning, Talik launches himself at Sventi. He catches him, hugging him tightly. Talik sobs quietly.

 

“I’m sorry,” he cries. “It’s just s-so h-hard to put all I have into something and still not be g-good enough. N-Not good enough b-because of my st-star sign, because of s-something I c-can’t change. And I don’t want you to g-go and I d-don’t w-want to fly with anyone else, but I don’t want to hold you b-back.”

 

“You’re not holding me back,” Sventi says softly, running his hand through Talik’s hair to calm him down. “We’re going to show those dumbasses on the board that it doesn’t matter what your star sign is. And you don’t have to worry about any of that other stuff, because I already told the board I’m not flying without you.”

 

“W-What?” Talik asks, eyes widening.

 

“I talked to the professor and the board, and I declined the mission. I got put on standby. I made you a promise, Tali, and I’m not going to break it. Not for anything.”

 

Talik bites his lip to keep himself from smiling too brightly. Sventi finds that really distracting. “Thank you,” he whispers.

 

And he looks at Sventi with eyes full of stars, of galaxies and nebulas and billions of shining stars, and Sventi thinks he’s more beautiful than any sky he’s ever seen.


End file.
